We are looking for bold, beautiful, and new interpretations on all the ways we interface with borders and boundaries in our world: travel, immigration, maps, gender, sexuality, love, citizenship, race, the physical body, language, death, the interior vs the exterior, atmospheric layers, psychological barriers, prisons, fences, rules and relationships, challenging the boundaries among genres, and anything else this theme conjures up.

The deadline for print submissions for Vol. XVI is September 15, 2016.

For LUMINA Online Vol. 7: This is an unthemed issue accepting general submissions until October 15, 2016.

We accept submissions from everyone regardless of age, nationality, or school affiliation, with the exception of current LUMINA staff members.

General guidelines for submissions:

All nonfiction contest submissions that are not chosen as finalists may be considered for general submission.

Please specify in your cover letter whether you are submitting Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction or Nonfiction Contest. If you fail to do so we will not review your work.

Please include a three-sentence biographical statement with your submission.

Poets may submit up to three poems, 60 lines maximum per poem, not exceeding 750 words. Prose writers may submit up to two pieces, 5000 words maximum per piece. If sending more than one poem or short story, please include them together in one document.

Do not include personal information on the submission documents. All submissions are read blind.

Previously published works will not be considered but simultaneous submissions are considered as long as we are notified immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere. Once we have accepted a piece, we assume that it will be published by us.

All nonfiction contest submissions that are not chosen as finalists may be considered for general submission.

All work will also be considered for our Online Journal.

After Publication:

If your work is selected by us, rights will revert to author after publication in Lumina; subsequent publishers should credit us for first appearance.

We reserve the right to publish some of the pieces of each issue on our website.

We reserve the right to edit submissions for style, grammar, and length. Non-standard English must be integral to the idea of the piece to be considered acceptable.

We reserve the right to crop, edit, or otherwise modify art submissions to meet our printer’s specifications.

Poets, writers, and artists whose work is accepted for publication will receive a free copy of the 2017 issue and an invitation to the launch party. Good luck, and we look forward to reading your work!